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MONTREAL—A Quebec man threatened to kill his girlfriend and her son with a car bomb if his plans to join Daesh and reunite with his family in Syria were revealed to the police, the man’s criminal trial has heard.

Ismael Habib is the first Canadian to face trial on charges of attempting to leave Canada to join a terrorist group after he was arrested last March by the RCMP. The charge is a recent addition to the Criminal Code of Canada—an attempt to crack down on those attempting to join Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and other outlawed armed groups in Syria and Iraq.

Habib’s arrest was the result of a complaint in February 2016 by his girlfriend, whose identity is protected by a court order. She testified in a Montreal courtroom Monday that Habib was in regular contact with his Québécoise wife and children, who were living in Syria.

Following his arrest, the girlfriend testified that she received a flurry of messages from Habib’s wife, Romaissa Hammouya.

The first was a text message from a number that Habib has used to contact his family: “Did you have something to do with this?” Hammouya asked.

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The girlfriend panicked. A few days later, she received a photograph purporting to show Hammouya and her children. It was accompanied by a question: “Do you think you can win against this?”

Next, there was a telephone call from a woman speaking in English who said: “We saw what you did. We’re going to come. We’re going to fight you. You’re going to die,” the girlfriend testified.

The threats came after a fairly quick courtship and cohabitation that began in November 2015 when Habib and his future girlfriend made contact on an online dating site used by Muslims. He originally explained that he was divorced and that his children were with their mother in Algeria.

After a few dates and conversations about what they wanted out of the relationship, the two moved into an apartment in Gatineau, Que., which Habib insisted be leased in her name alone.

They soon clashed over the issue of religion. The girlfriend described herself as a non-practising Muslim. Habib prayed five times a day, wore a beard and told her he wanted her to wear a veil, a lose-fitting robe known as a jilbab, to stop working because she was in contact with other men and to cut contact with her non-Muslim friends. She testified that the tensions led her to take a medical leave from work.

Habib was not working either, though he received about $1,600 from student loans and child benefit payments, the girlfriend testified.

During the days, she said that Habib followed closely news of the fighting between Daesh and the Syrian army on the internet and made no attempt to hide it when he watched propaganda videos put out by the terrorist group, including gruesome scenes showing mass executions.

But one day, when Habib was out of the apartment, his girlfriend started looking through his tablet computer and came across an online chat with Hammouya. It revealed that the couple was not, in fact, divorce.

She was devastated and confronted him. He came clean about his past and his future intentions, she told the court.

“He wanted to go and join his family,” the woman testified, adding that learning the truth made her fear for her security and that of her school-aged son.

Habib was more transparent when communicating with his wife and children from that point on, and the girlfriend testified that Hammouya began taunting Habib, telling him that he was wasting his time in Canada.

“Rather than doing nothing, you should do your jihad there,” the girlfriend recounted of one conversation, adding that Hammouya suggested he obtain a firearm and attack a police officer.

Habib also told her about a failed attempt in June 2014 to obtain a Canadian passport using his twin brother’s name and government-issued identification.

The woman also came across a fraudulent passport from another country that Habib seemed to think would be the one he would use to eventually flee Canada. He had shaved his beard for the photograph.

He told her he believed his best mode of travel was by boat due to a prior criminal investigation into his activities. And Habib seemed certain that he was being monitored by the authorities—so much so that his girlfriend testified that he began communicating in writing rather than by talking.

All of it was to achieve his single goal, she said.

“The goal was to get to Turkey, to get to Syria and join his family,” she told the court.

When Habib confided to his Hammouya that his girlfriend in Gatineau was aware of his intentions, he was scolded, prompting him to issue his threat.

“If you report me I will put a bomb in your car,” the girlfriend testified she was told.

She replied defiantly that he could do whatever he wanted to her automobile because she had insurance.

He shot back: “You’ll be inside—you and your kid.”

It was the final straw, prompting the woman to go directly to the local police and press charges. The complaint led to a search warrant at the couple’s apartment and his arrest on terrorism charges.

The trial, which is scheduled to run for two weeks, continues Monday afternoon.

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